Convenience vs. Immersion
The gang and I started leveling our characters in Vashj’ir the new underwater zone in World of Warcraft Cataclysm.
We had a fun time chatting on skype and making jokes. I enjoy playing this way because even if we get split up a little we all have each others backs. Plus it makes the whole thing feel far more social than the game is for me normally.
All that being said, I enjoyed the backdrop, visuals and quests in the zone. Not all the quests made sense of course but they generally went off without a hitch. The hardest part in the group is making sure everyone has the quests done before moving on. Voice chat makes short work of that and I think I’m going to insist on it for world questing group play from now on.
In my opinion, the one negative thing about the zone is that the lack of immersion the game presents is even more stark in this seaborne environment. The visuals were very nice but visuals are only a catalyst to immersion in a game. Immersion is about the “feel”. Graphics help, but the feel is more about the limitations, props and dangers in the environment. Those things are what define the experience of being in an alien or fantasy landscape.
The basics of immersion in Vashj’ir are just not there.
Certainly there are plenty of sharks, monsters and fish but danger and limitations shouldn’t always be about beating up monsters. In an underwater environment characters are literally out of their environment. The risk of drowning, being crushed by overwhelming pressure and restricted mobility should be the norm. Instead of emphasizing the risks of such an environment to an adventurer and challenging them to alleviate the difficulties with player ingenuity in the form of potions, turtle mounts acquired through fishing, taking advantage of physics or quest chains to construct gear like wetsuits, breathing lungs with limited though extended durations or even their own abilities, they simply put a spell on the characters that allows them to swim at mount speeds and breathe underwater, FOREVER. Or at least when they’re in that zone. Adding the easy to acquire seahorse mount, which somehow moves faster than any flying mount does in the air, the zone ends up being like any other above ground zone but faster and more convenient.
Frankly I think the problem is convenience. I find that the mass of players in WoW don't want to be inconvenienced in the game. They just want to get stuff done and move on. After playing for a long time I've found even myself on that side of the fence from time to time, though I'm not proud of it. This has led Blizzard to accommodate the sense of convenience over time and in their defense, since the game is so long and many of the best and longest lasting rewards are at the top, people just want to get there ASAP.
On the other hand many gamers nowadays just want to be dazzled with beautiful graphics and not presented with environmental challenges to be overcome. As long as the challenges involve fighting, things are A-OK, But if it involves travel, lava that actually does damage when you stand on it or any kind of environmental logical hindrance, it's just annoying. (True fact, in WoW a permanent campfire in any particular zone does damage while standing on a river of lava does not.)
If Blizzard made a change to say allow lava or even excessive heat to do damage, I can honestly see some players complaining. "OMG I DIED IN LAVA! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!". After reading a lot of WoW and non WoW forums, this sort of thing has basically given WoW gamers a bad rep amongst the overall gamer community.
With these criteria in mind, Vashj’ir is one of the most beautiful environments in the game but it’s also one of the worst when it comes to the feeling of immersion. Compare this to say, a game like Minecraft, which has fantastic immersion but terrible graphics. It’s been about 31-32 years since I started playing video games and I’m still waiting for a game that does both.
I'm still having fun, but as usual it's the social aspect of the game that keeps me coming back.
We had a fun time chatting on skype and making jokes. I enjoy playing this way because even if we get split up a little we all have each others backs. Plus it makes the whole thing feel far more social than the game is for me normally.
All that being said, I enjoyed the backdrop, visuals and quests in the zone. Not all the quests made sense of course but they generally went off without a hitch. The hardest part in the group is making sure everyone has the quests done before moving on. Voice chat makes short work of that and I think I’m going to insist on it for world questing group play from now on.
In my opinion, the one negative thing about the zone is that the lack of immersion the game presents is even more stark in this seaborne environment. The visuals were very nice but visuals are only a catalyst to immersion in a game. Immersion is about the “feel”. Graphics help, but the feel is more about the limitations, props and dangers in the environment. Those things are what define the experience of being in an alien or fantasy landscape.
The basics of immersion in Vashj’ir are just not there.
Certainly there are plenty of sharks, monsters and fish but danger and limitations shouldn’t always be about beating up monsters. In an underwater environment characters are literally out of their environment. The risk of drowning, being crushed by overwhelming pressure and restricted mobility should be the norm. Instead of emphasizing the risks of such an environment to an adventurer and challenging them to alleviate the difficulties with player ingenuity in the form of potions, turtle mounts acquired through fishing, taking advantage of physics or quest chains to construct gear like wetsuits, breathing lungs with limited though extended durations or even their own abilities, they simply put a spell on the characters that allows them to swim at mount speeds and breathe underwater, FOREVER. Or at least when they’re in that zone. Adding the easy to acquire seahorse mount, which somehow moves faster than any flying mount does in the air, the zone ends up being like any other above ground zone but faster and more convenient.
Frankly I think the problem is convenience. I find that the mass of players in WoW don't want to be inconvenienced in the game. They just want to get stuff done and move on. After playing for a long time I've found even myself on that side of the fence from time to time, though I'm not proud of it. This has led Blizzard to accommodate the sense of convenience over time and in their defense, since the game is so long and many of the best and longest lasting rewards are at the top, people just want to get there ASAP.
On the other hand many gamers nowadays just want to be dazzled with beautiful graphics and not presented with environmental challenges to be overcome. As long as the challenges involve fighting, things are A-OK, But if it involves travel, lava that actually does damage when you stand on it or any kind of environmental logical hindrance, it's just annoying. (True fact, in WoW a permanent campfire in any particular zone does damage while standing on a river of lava does not.)
If Blizzard made a change to say allow lava or even excessive heat to do damage, I can honestly see some players complaining. "OMG I DIED IN LAVA! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!". After reading a lot of WoW and non WoW forums, this sort of thing has basically given WoW gamers a bad rep amongst the overall gamer community.
With these criteria in mind, Vashj’ir is one of the most beautiful environments in the game but it’s also one of the worst when it comes to the feeling of immersion. Compare this to say, a game like Minecraft, which has fantastic immersion but terrible graphics. It’s been about 31-32 years since I started playing video games and I’m still waiting for a game that does both.
I'm still having fun, but as usual it's the social aspect of the game that keeps me coming back.